The Cavern of Sethi

by H. M. Clarke

  As they walked, Kalena placed her palm against the wall, marveling at how smooth and shiny the stone was. There was no hint of tool marks on the wall and the stone felt strangely warm to the touch, like it had been sitting out in the sun. The tunnel was also perfectly square cut. Well, as perfect as Kalena’s eyes could tell.

  And the tunnel was sloping gradually downward. The only way she knew this was her inner center of gravity adjusting her body to compensate, and the slight strain on her calves as they walked down the tunnel.

  The tunnel was wide enough for the three of them to walk side by side and the fact that Kalena could both feel and see her friends around her made the nervous churning feeling in her stomach settle to a dull bubble.

  Kalena was still running her hand along the wall when she felt the change in texture. The warm, flat stone wall changed to something that felt smoother and cooler. Her fingers had trouble gripping this new surface and when Kalena looked at it more closely, it looked more like rose colored solid liquid.

  Her step slowed and she turned to look at Kral and Holm. Kalena raised an eyebrow and gestured around her. The boys just gave her a shrug. Whatever this material is was way outside of their limited experience.

  A sound then whispered up the tunnel and all three heads swung around to look in that direction. Kalena held a finger to her lips to forestall any questions from the boys and concentrated on listening, focusing her attention on the corridor ahead.

  As Kalena listened, the sound began to become more regular and resolved itself into something she recognized.

  “Let’s go,” she whispered to Kral and Holm before moving quickly down the corridor. This new tunnel surface covered the floor as well and Kalena found that her boots, though suited for walking on a stone floor, did not grip so well to this new material.

  The three suddenly found themselves sliding forwards, and it was only their agile experience of staying ‘Put’ in a Hatar Saddle and harness that kept them standing upright.

  The three threw out their arms and gripped each other while Kalena and Holm who were closest to the walls, used their hands to slow down their forward momentum.

  “Let’s take this slowly shall we?” Kral whispered to them once they had all slid to a stop.

  Both Kalena and Holm nodded agreement.

  They then went back to their original pace of slow walking. But now the sound was louder and more distinct and confirmed what Kalena had though she had heard. After all, it was a sound she had heard herself make enough times after Videan and his friends had picked on her.

  It was the sound of sobbing and not that quiet, dried eyed sobbing that some girls use. This was wet, snot sniffling sobbing. The kind where only your mother would hug you because she did not care about getting your tears and snot all over her.

  Hearing that sobbing made Kalena want to run. The sound tugged at her memories and heart strings, but she restrained herself as she also did not want to break her leg hurrying down there. But if the Stranger had in any way hurt that boy... He was a Hatar Kalar, and Hatar Kalar protect their own.

  The tunnel abruptly leveled out and the light glared bright as the material of the tunnel caught it and made it multiply in intensity.

  Seated at the end of the tunnel was the huddled form of the boy. He had his back to them with his knees drawn up, and his head pressed into his forearms. He did not see the trio appear from the tunnel.

  Kalena looked past the boy and stopped in shock at what she saw.

  The tunnel opened up into a giant cavern and it was entirely covered in the same rose colored material as the tunnel. The floor and most of the surrounding walls were smooth, but large geometric solid blocks jutted out from the floor and roof at odd angles. As Kalena stared at the rose colored things, she suddenly realized she was looking at crystal structures.

  The whole cavern was made of crystal.

  She moved forward and knelt beside the boy. He jerked as her sudden appearance scared him.

  “It’s okay, we’re here to help,” she said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

  The boy looked up at her and then glanced behind her at both Kral and Holm.

  “I want to go home, I don’t like it here,” was all he said.

  Kalena looked again around the cavern but could see no one else there.

  “Where is the other person?” Kalena asked. “We know another person bought you here.”

  The boy just clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. But Kalena could see the muscles of his throat and jaw trying to move, but nothing not even a squeak would come out.

  Someone or something was stopping him.

  “It’s okay. We’ll find them,” she said hoping her voice sounded more confident than she felt.

  Kalena could feel the boy’s muscles relax under her hand, and he managed to control his sobbing now that he had others around him. The three of them helped to give the boy the strength he needed to bring him back to himself.

  “Are you okay to stand?” Kral asked the boy as Holm stepped out from the tunnel into the cavern, the two boys could not keep their eyes away from the wonders of their strange surroundings.

  But Kalena recognized this cavern from Adhamh’s description in the tale he had told her this morning. And she felt the seething mass in her stomach sink like a heavy stone deep in her gut.

  “Yes, I’m not hurt. But I don’t know how I got here. I don’t remember.”

  “It’s okay, we’ll take you back to Darkon,” Kral said holding a hand out to the boy to help him to his feet. “What’s your name?”

  “It’s Jhon.”

  Kalena stood as well and moved to stand beside Holm, but this time she looked carefully at all the crystal structures growing up from the floor of the cavern. If this was what Adhamh had been describing, it should be her-

  Her eyes suddenly locked sight on a large piece of rose crystal that grew up from the center of the cavern. It was larger and thicker than the others that surrounded it, and when you looked closely at it, past all the refracted light and reflections, you could see a large, dark shadow.

  Kalena took a few steps forward to get a better view of the center out of the way of the light being emitted from some of the clear quartz crystals at the other end of the cavern.

  What she saw left no doubt in her mind about what they had found.

  Trapped in the center of the crystal was a Hatar’le’margarten, standing tall on their hind feet with their wings fully extended.

  This was Sethi’de’hasma, the Spellcrafter that Adhamh had been searching for.

  Chapter Ten

  The Crystal Sancutary

  ADHAMH! WE’VE FOUND her, we’ve found your Spellcrafter.’

  Silence answered her call.

  ‘Adhamh?’

  Nothing.

  Fear blossomed in her throat as Kalena realized that she could not feel Adhamh’s constant link in her mind, much less talk to him. For the first time since coming to Darkon, Kalena felt totally alone.

  “Holm, can you contact Motta?” Kalena called back over her shoulder.

  Holm’s face froze for a moment and then he blinked and glanced back at Kalena.

  “I can’t talk to her.”

  “I can’t get Trar either,” Kral said as he and the boy moved to join them.

  “I think something, or someone, is blocking us from contacting our friends.”

  “Is there someone else in here with us?” Kral asked.

  “Not that I can see. But look in the center of the cavern. What do you notice?”

  Both Kral and Holm stared out into the cavern and looked around the crystal structures.

  “There’s something trapped in the middle and it looks like-“

  “Like a Hatar’le’margarten,” Holm finished for Kral.

  “That is who Adhamh is looking for,” Kalena said. “That is Sethi’de’hasma,”

  At the mention of that name, Kalena noticed the boy shrink back against Kral as if the taller boy could hide him. />
  “Jhon, do you recognize that name?” Kalena asked him.

  The boy gave her a brief nod.

  “Where have you heard it?”

  “It’s the name of the lady that speaks to me.”

  “She speaks to you?”

  Jhon gave Kalena a timid little nod.

  “She spoke to me only this morning. To see what I would be doing today.”

  “And what do you remember after that?” Kalena asked.

  Jhon opened his mouth to speak, but halted before anything came out. A frown appeared on his face as he slowly shut his mouth.

  “I, I, I don’t remember,” Jhon finally said with a quavering note of fear.

  Kalena stepped over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about it. We’re here to help.”

  “Ah....Kalena.”

  “What Holm?”

  “You need to take a look at this.”

  “At what?” Kalena asked as she turned to look at Holm.

  Holm stood transfixed, staring out into the cavern.

  Kalena turned and followed the direction of his gaze.

  The large crystal in the center that contained the form of the Hatar’le’margarten had started to glow. A red, glowing light was growing around the Hatar and as Kalena watched, she saw a tendril of light push out from the center of the crystal and weave its way down to the floor of the cavern.

  “What is that?” Kral asked.

  “I don’t know. But I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Kalena

  “Let’s get out of here and find our Hatar,” Holm said.

  Kalena kept her eyes on the glowing tendril and saw it wrap around something on the floor at the foot of the crystal block. The tendril lifted it up and Kalena saw that it looked like one of the wooden bowls that are used in the Dining Hall. There was something in it, though Kalena could not see what it was.

  Kral, Jhon and Holm began to back up to the tunnel entrance, and Kalena hoped that they would be able to climb up the slippery slope of the tunnel floor without to much trouble.

  The tendril paused halfway up the block and then began to tip the bowl slowly towards the crystal face. A small amount of liquid ran out from the bowl and splashed onto the block.

  But instead of running down to the ground, the liquid was absorbed into the crystal. Kalena could see it being pulled like a piece of string through the crystal matrix towards the body of the Hatar trapped in the center of the crystal block.

  “Jhon, do you know what was in that bowl?” Kalena asked, pointing at the crystal.

  Jhon shook his head.

  “I don’t know, but I have a cut along my right forearm. I don’t remember how it got there.”

  Jhon rolled up his sleeve and running down his forearm was a long cut, freshly made and still weeping a little.

  “I think I cut myself and bled into a bowl,” Jhon said, his voice shaking. “I can see myself doing it, but I don’t remember it. If that makes sense.”

  That made perfect sense to Kalena. But what would anyone need blood for?

  “Kalena!”

  Kalena turned back and saw that the red liquid had now reached the figure in the center of the block and it started to glow bright red. The light then flashed into the trapped figure, enveloping it in a hot, red fire and made Kalena turn her eyes away from the brightness.

  When she looked back, the figure was still glowing in fire but the crystal that encased it began to shimmer and bubble like a hot pot of strawberry jam. A harsh, keening sound suddenly split the air and Kalena clapped her hands over her ears in an effort to blunt the sound.

  Instead she found an answering inner hum. With her thumb pressed behind her ear Kalena felt the flesh of her Krytal scar buzzing.

  It was then Kalena realized that her Krytal crystal was answering the dying screams of the crystal in the cavern’s center.

  But crystals are not living things?

  Are they?

  “Kalena!”

  She heard her name shouted over the death cries of the crystal but Kalena ignored it. Turning would mean moving and ruining the delicate balance she had achieved between her hands and her rigid posture. Kalena did not want to risk her eardrums to be blown out with the noise.

  “Kalena!”

  Then everything fell silent.

  Kalena looked up at the crystal, only then realizing that she had shrunk into a crouch with her eyes screwed shut.

  The fire had gone, but the crystal was now melting away from its center like snow on a hot sunny day melting away from the skeletal branches of a tree.

  When the crystal had mostly melted away, the Hatar figure started to move. First it’s wings twitched, then a feathered ear flicked before it reached out and stretched every limb like it had gotten up from a long nap.

  The Hatar stepped off what remained of the melted block and shook itself like a wet dog.

  Kalena had to bite back the flood of retching as the smell of death and decay hit her nostrils. It smelt worse than the cow entrails that the Hatar thought a delicacy.

  She began to back away towards the others, but her sudden movement caught the things eyes and its head snapped up to stare at them.

  Kalena froze and instinctively knew that the boys had done the same. She stared back at the thing, but another wave of putrid odor hit her and caught off guard she vomited all over her feet.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sethi’de’hasma

  KALENA STOOD STOCK still as the strange Hatar stared at them all. She did not even dare to breathe or wipe away the vomit from her lips as she stared back at the stranger.

  It seemed an age before the Hatar turned away from them as if dismissing them as beneath its notice. Kalena slowly released the breath she had been holding and looked back at the others. All of their eyes were on her, waiting to be told what to do. Kalena wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and was glad that the fresh taste of vomit overpowered the putrid stench that flooded the cavern.

  She nodded towards the tunnel, and began to back slowly towards it while keeping her eyes locked on the Stranger.

  The strange Hatar was not large, especially by Hatar’le’margarten standards. Even Trar who was considered a runt was larger than this stranger.

  Kalena could see the gleam of crimson feathers beneath the liquid crystal matrix that still soaked the Stranger. The Stranger was monotone which, according to Adhamh, meant that it came from a lower caste, whatever that was. The Hatar caste system was something Kalena still did not fully understand, but she knew that feather hue was inherited from the parents and a Hatar’s pedigree along with feather color denotes what caste you belong to.

  Maybe this was not the legendary Sethi’de’hasma? The way Adhamh talked about her in his tale, Kalena assumed that she must be of a high caste along with Adhamh. Names denote caste as well, and the ‘de’ is a high caste name. That much Kalena remembered.

  Kalena felt a tingling behind her ear. She reached up a hand to rub at it and realized that it was still the vibrations that she had felt before. Her Krytal crystal was still oscillating even though the screams of the dying rose crystal were now gone. Maybe there was still sound outside of her range of hearing? Maybe-

  Liquid hit Kalena in the face.

  The Stranger moved and started to flap her wings like a duck does when trying to dry them while rearing up onto its hind legs.

  ‘Finally, I am FREE!’

  Kalena heard the female voice boom loudly through her mind. She winced and instinctively covered her ears with her hands. A useless gesture since the voice she was hearing was not entering through her ears.

  The Hatar then let out a joyful roar that echoed around the cavern, making the crystal sing back in response.

  Kalena took the opportunity to move back to join the other three.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Kral said.

  Well. That’s what Kalena thought he said. She nodded and they all moved to make their way back up to the tunnel. All t
he while, the buzzing behind her ear kept growing stronger and stronger and the sound of it was making her deaf to everything through that ear.

  ‘I am free at last, the shackles have been broken and I am free to pursue my revenge. Hadria and Arran beware, for you will not win as easily against me this time.’

  The Stranger’s voice was even louder and Kalena saw the other three wince at the ‘sound’ which meant that they could hear the Hatar as well. Which was impossible-

  ‘Not impossible darling.’

  Kalena heard the mind voice and jumped, taken by surprise at how easily it had slipped into her consciousness. How easily it had passed by her defenses and how easily it could read her thoughts.

  ‘Yes, these crystals that you humans have adopted make it very easy for someone who knows how to use them to get access. If you have the right key you can unlock anything.’

  The voice was now silky smooth and gone was the booming joy of before. Kalena opened her eyes, unaware that she had closed them and looked out into the cavern.

  The crimson Hatar was now back on all fours and was staring at them all with a toothy grin which Kalena thought was meant to be reassuring but was anything but.

  ‘Who are you?’ Kalena asked with a mind tread of her own and slowly began to wrap it around the thread of the stranger.

  ‘You know who I am. I can see my name as clear as day in the landscape of your mind.’

  ‘You are Sethi’de’hasma.’

  The Hatar ducked her head in greeting and acknowledgment.

  ‘I am rather surprised to see my name there, as every other human mind I touched knows nothing about me.’

  ‘I was told your story by a Hatar’le’margarten friend of mine,’ Kalena replied. She kept her tone calm and polite, not wanting to antagonize Sethi. She had to keep her here until Adhamh, Harada and Samar appeared.

  ‘Are you the reason we can’t talk to anyone?’ Kalena asked.

  ‘In a way. The crystal that this cavern is made out of blocks your voice, and as I created it then logically I am the reason.’

  ‘But you talked to Jhon from here.’

  ‘If you know the key, you can pass through all.’